The State of European Cities Report: some critical reflections upon urban phenomena in the European Union

The article provides some critical reflection on the contents of the 2007 State of European Cities Report. It proposes to read it from two different perspectives: on the one hand, insofar it aims to provide an updated picture of the urban face of the European Union; on the other insofar it contains descriptions oriented to action, aimed at helping cities to understand and adapt to ongoing changes and adjust their policies in order to replicate the strengths and potentialities of cities as peculiar drivers of development of the EU. In order to do that, the authors interrogate it from a more general underlying question: what are cities today? In fact, though exploring the processes of transformations they are currently facing, the report seems to be avoiding questioning cities per se. Our approach opens up an interesting space for reflection and also gives some possible answers to a number of questions raised by the Report itself.